The present invention is directed to an optical cable comprising a plurality of small bands or ribbons, each respectively containing a plurality of light waveguides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,013 and European Application A1 0 356 786 disclose an optical cable in which a core element is provided with approximately rectangular chambers. Such as structure, which is often referred to as a "chambered cable" is frequently utilized together with ribbon conductors, for example a plurality of light waveguides which are combined to form a band having an approximately rectangular cross section. The waveguides of the band are held together by a shared envelope of material. A plurality of the bands are united to form a band stack, and this stack is adapted to the respectively approximately rectangularly fashioned chambers on the basis of its outside contour so that it, likewise, has a rectangular shape. A small gap between the chamber wall and the band stack enables a certain mobility therebetween.
Given rectangular chambers, the wall thickness of the partitions between the individual chambers becomes broader or larger as the radial distance from the axis of the cable increases so that the walls have an approximately wedge-shaped cross section. According to the above U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,013, the space existing between chambers, in fact, is utilized to a certain extent such that outwardly opening additional depressions or grooves are formed to receive other elements. Nevertheless, a relatively great amount of space is lost because of this wall structure so that the packing density of the light waveguides cannot be made especially high.